Russia's defense industry is almost entirely dependent on supplies of beryllium oxide ceramics from Kazakhstan, using the material to manufacture radar systems and missile seeker heads. Exports of the ceramics to Russia increased from about $1 million before the full-scale invasion to $8 million in 2025, despite the fact that the components purchased by Russian defense manufacturers have no direct civilian application, according to an investigation by The Insider.
Although Russia has one of the world's largest proven beryllium reserves, with 35 known deposits registered by the state, it has never developed them on an industrial scale and remains fully dependent on imported beryllium oxide. Attempts to establish domestic production have so far failed. Saratov-based Basalt announced plans to manufacture beryllium ceramics for the defense industry, but the status of the project remains unknown, while authorities have only pledged to begin developing the Ermakovskoye fluorite-beryllium deposit in Buryatia in 2026.
Beryllium oxide ceramics are among the most thermally conductive dielectric materials in the world, second only to diamond. Their high thermal conductivity, strength, and heat resistance make them indispensable for microwave transistors and integrated circuits used in ground-based radar systems and missile seeker heads. The material is also resistant to radiation and chemicals and is transparent to microwave, ultraviolet, and X-ray radiation.
In the defense industry, beryllium oxide ceramics are used in heat-dissipating insulators, substrates for high-power transistors and microchips, microwave windows and insulators, and components for traveling-wave tubes. For example, Shokin Research and Production Enterprise Istok uses such components in 1.2-kilowatt traveling-wave tubes that serve as microwave radiation sources in the S-400, Tor, Buk, Kub, Kinzhal, and Pantsir air defense systems, as well as in air-to-air missile seeker heads.
According to the investigation, Kazakhstan's Kaz Ceramics is the sole producer and supplier of beryllium oxide ceramics to Russia, either directly or through the intermediary company Zenit-K.
Between 2022 and 2025, customers included some of Russia's key defense manufacturers and their contractors. Among them were Fazotron-VMZ, which produces M411146 high-frequency emitters used to protect Iskander-M missiles from air defense systems; the Research Institute of Semiconductor Devices, which manufactures components for Kh-59M2/M2A missiles, Krasnopol-M2 guided artillery shells, and the Pantsir-S1 air defense system; the Fryazino High-Power Transistor Plant; OKB Pluton; Shokin NPP Istok, which develops microwave equipment for the Pantsir, Buk, S-300, and S-400 systems, as well as Sh-121 amplifiers for the Su-57 fighter aircraft; VZPP-S; the Central Design Bureau of Instrument Engineering; the Research Institute of Electronic Engineering; Iskra Research and Production Plant in Ulyanovsk; NPP Almaz, which manufactures the 92N6E and 96L6E radars for the S-400 system; the Novosibirsk Research Institute of Measuring Instruments; the Degtyarev Plant, which produces 9M333 missiles for the Strela-10M3 air defense system; and the sanctioned companies NPP Kontakt, NPP Pulsar, and NPP Metallurgiya.
Finished ceramic substrates from Kazakhstan were also supplied to Belarusian manufacturer Integral, which produces microchips used in Kh-101 cruise missiles and Iskander-K missiles.
Kazakh law enforcement authorities previously opened a criminal investigation against the management of the Kazakh plant over alleged smuggling of the ceramics to Belarus. Although those involved were later granted amnesty, a Kazakh court ruled that the ceramics constitute dual-use goods.
Unlike exports of products with both civilian and military applications—such as chromium, tantalum, machine tools, or commercial drones—which could theoretically be used in civilian industries, direct deliveries of beryllium oxide ceramics to Russian defense manufacturers represent a rare case of Kazakhstan supplying products intended exclusively for military use in Russia's offensive weapons programs.
